Destroying Maoz Esther--Again

The tiny hillside neighborhood of Maoz Esther, outside the Samarian Jewish community of Kochav HaShachar, is again a target for Israel Police.

Chana Ya'ar, 13/10/10 13:15 | updated: 13:20

Destroyed Maoz Esther synagogue outside Kocha

Israel news photo: Yehuda Lev Kaye

Israel Police again targeted the tiny hillside neighborhood of Maoz Esther, outside the Jewish community of Kochav HaShachar in Samaria Wednesday morning, demolishing three wooden homes and attempting but failing to destroy a concrete house as well.

More than 100 police officers and IDF soldiers uniformed and in plain clothes, arrived at the homes, together with approximately a dozen Arab workers, according to eyewitnesses.

Tractors quickly made short work of the wooden structures, the witnesses told Arutz Sheva’s, but they were largely unsuccessful in destroying a cinderblock home built on the side of a hill, inaccessible to construction vehicles.

After several hours of attempting to destroy the little cement house with manual labor, power tools, drills and jack hammers, the witnesses said, authorities finally abandoned the effort, leaving the structure intact.

The fledgling neighborhood has been repeatedly destroyed since its founding in 2007 in memory of Esther Galia, who was shot and killed by terrorists on her way home to Kochav HaShachar. Each time, residents return and rebuild, undeterred.

A local resident commented bitterly during the last round of demolitions, “To the government of Israel and to the nations of the world, Maoz Esther is ‘illegal.’ As for the Bedouin encampment on the next hill over, just as ‘illegal,’ nobody seems to mind. It is my guess that if anyone would try to knock that one down, every single government in the world would condemn Israel.”